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Here are a few gems that made me laugh. Enjoy!

I always see skinny people running.

It was so hot in there I almost sweat my perm out.

Girl 1: Look. That bumper sticker says “I miss Bill.”
Girl 2: Who’s Bill?
Girl 1: Bill Clinton!
Girl 2: Well . . . where he at?

My daughter ate a Christmas ornament. That’s right. One of those round, glass tree ornaments. We walked in and she was crunching away on a red one.  At least she’ll always have the circus to fall back on.

Don’t worry.  She’s fine.

This little dress was hand knit by a very dear friend in Peru. She gave it to us just before we moved back to the U.S. It now fits Sophia perfectly.

If there is one thing I’ve seen here at the Promise House, it’s pain. Not so much my own, but the girls’. Week after week these kids get jilted by their families and/or their baby’s father. Imagine the kind of pain you might feel you might feel if the only person you have to hold on to no longer cares about you. Maybe you don’t have to imagine it.

Every little thing is gonna be alright. That’s part of a song by Delirious?. I believe it’s true. It might take a while, but everything is going to be ok. And, more than that, pain and sadness are often necessary for growth to occur, for peace and joy to take root (Jn. 16:7). Jesus walks with us and strengthens us through times of brokenness so that we not only survive them, but come out on the other side with a deeper connectedness to him and a clear perspective of what life is all about.

I feel like a jumbled mass of motives and wants and intentions all pulling me in a different direction. My life feels messy. I guess that’s probably just how life is. Just like a big bowl of spaghetti.

Sometimes I think following God equals being in solitude, saying prayers, and thinking only of ‘heavenly things‘. But, that’s not it at all. Not by a long shot. God is so much more organic and creative and messy than that. Far from the monastery I am. Instead of solitude I live in a house full of voices and feelings and emotions. Instead of ‘heavenly things’ I am obliged to think about dirty diapers, hurting teenagers, and hot dogs on the grill. Instead of long, deep-voiced prayers my conversation with God usually amounts too “Help me God!”.

My life is messy. Yet, through all these things I am with God and he is with me. He is speaking to me. He is teaching me. He is shaping me. All of that happens by means of the things he has me doing everyday . . . not in spite of them.

We made a quick trip to Hot Springs with all the girls yesterday to visit Perrion. She lives in Shreveport, but is visiting family over the holidays. That’s Dennis she is holding, her son. He looks a lot different now. You can see him when he was just a few days old at the bottom of this page.

Life is hard. And for some folks, just where they are born and the family they are born into makes life really hard. Perrion seems to be doing pretty well though. At 15, with a ten month old, she is doing the best she knows.

A friend emailed this to me last week. You can find it at http://marshillchurch.org. My favorite part is the third paragraph. What do you think?

When it comes to doctrine, culture, preferences, traditions, lifestyles, politics, behavior, etc., Mars Hill Church takes a “closed-hand/open-hand” approach. The closed hand hangs onto the non-negotiable tenets of Christian orthodoxy: sin is the problem, Jesus is the answer, the Bible is true, and Hell is hot.

The open hand, however, allows room for differences when it comes to secondary matters; we liberally allow freedom for conscience and wisdom to guide where the Bible is silent. The open hand fosters unity among the diversity of expressions found in the Mars Hill congregation: Democrats and Republicans, soccer moms and indie rockers, carnivores and vegans, trendy bohemians and Microsoft nerds.

Hence, Mars Hill Church is in favor of good beer (in moderation), great sex (in marriage), and even tattoos (Jesus has one). But our goal must always be love and concern for our friends so that we don’t enjoy our freedom at the expense of their faith.

In this way, we are seeking to simultaneously heed the Bible’s commands to have sound doctrine (1Timothy 4:16; Titus 1:9, 2:1), to love our Christian brothers and sisters (1 Peter 4:8; 1 John 4:7-21), and to avoid unnecessary divisions (Romans 16:17; 1 Corinthians 1:10, 12:25; Titus 3:10).

My mom is the most creative person I know. She is an artist. And a pretty darn good one too. There is never a lack of demand for her services. This will give you an idea. She decided that she wanted to knit Sophia a hat or two for Christmas. The problem was that she didn’t know how to knit. So, about a week before Christmas she started learning. And this is what she did. I love you mom! Your rock the casa.

I’ll try to post some more stuff of her work. It is amazing.

We’re already planning our trip to Memphis next year when American Idol comes through. Hopefully they’ll be accepting duets by then. Do you think they’ll make the cut?

Tyndale is publishing the book “Pagan Christianity” by Frank Viola and George Barna. It’s due out in January, but it’s already making people mad. Which only leads me to assume that it must be really good.

Here’s the argument the book makes: “Most of what present-day Christians do in church each Sunday is rooted not in the New Testament, but in pagan culture and rituals developed long after the death of the apostles.” 

And the authors go on to make the point that this is not necessarily reason to throw them out, but that they should be re-evaluated and, in some cases, demoted.

Church buildings, sermons, choirs, seminaries, dressing up for church and a lot of other things church folk consider the important are called into question.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I actually get a chance to read it.